Past Events

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Date: 20 February 2018Anne Stone, Regents' Professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University, will present a specialized lecture, titled "What does dental calculus tell us about diet, pathogens, and population history?: Preliminary results from the chimpanzees of Gombe."

Date: 19 February 2018Anne Stone, Regents' Professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change at Arizona State University, will present a lecture intended for a general audience, titled "Tracking a killer: Using ancient DNA to understand the evolutionary history of tuberculosis."

Date: 17 February 2018"What makes a planet habitable?" is the title of the next lecture in the 2018 edition of the free public minicourse, the "Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science." On February 7, James Kasting, Evan Pugh Professor of Geosciences at Penn State, will describe the latest research about habitable planets beyond our own solar system. His lecture in 100 Thomas Building on the Penn State University Park campus begins at 11:00 a.m. and will be followed at 12:30 p.m. by an opportunity to obtain an autographed copy of a book authored by Kasting in the lobby of 100 Thomas Building, hosted by the Penn State Bookstore.

Date: 10 February 2018"The Birth of Habitable Planets" is the title of the lecture on February 10 in the 2018 edition of the free public minicourse, the "Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science." Penn State Assistant Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics Rebekah Dawson will give a guided tour of whether emerging solar systems could give birth -- or not -- to planets that could support life. Her lecture begins at 11:00 a.m. and ends at 12:30 p.m. in 100 Thomas Building on the Penn State University Park campus.

Date: 03 February 2018"Choose Your Own Adventure: Planet Edition" is the title of the next lecture in the 2018 edition of the free public minicourse, the "Penn State Lectures on the Frontiers of Science." On February 3, Sarah Ballard, a Torres Fellow, L'Oreal Fellow, and Postdoctoral Scholar in Exoplanetary Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will describe the latest research about the planets beyond our own solar system that are most likely to have the right conditions for supporting life. Her lecture, "Chose Your Own Adventure: Planet Edition, begins at 11:00 a.m. and will end at 12:30 p.m. in 100 Thomas Building on the Penn State University Park campus.

Date: 27 January 2018The hunt is on at Penn State to find truly Earth-like planets orbiting the closest stars to the Sun. On January 27, you can hear Penn State's Suvrath Mahadevan, associate professor of astronomy and astrophysics, give an insider's tour of the hunt for planets that are capable of supporting life, including exciting new research efforts led by Penn State scientists. His lecture, "New Tools for Finding the Closest Earth-Like Planets, begins at 11:00 a.m. and will end at 12:30 p.m. in 100 Thomas Building on the Penn State University Park campus.

Date: 20 January 2018This free public minicourse on six consecutive Saturday mornings begins on January 20 with a lecture by John Johnson, professor of astronomy and director of graduate studies at Harvard University. His lecture, "Is there Life on Other Planets?" begins at 11:00 a.m. and will end at about 12:30 p.m. in 100 Thomas Building on the Penn State University Park Campus. After the lecture, he will be available to sign copies of his book, "How Do You Find An Exoplanet?"

Date: 20 January 2018This free public minicourse on six consecutive Saturday mornings begins on January 20 with a lecture by John Johnson, professor of astronomy and director of graduate studies at Harvard University. His lecture, "Is there Life on Other Planets?" begins at 11:00 a.m. and will end at about 12:30 p.m. in 100 Thomas Building on the Penn State University Park Campus. After the lecture, he will be available to sign copies of his book, "How Do You Find An Exoplanet?"

Date: 23 October 2017Colonel Aaron Saguil, MD, MPH, FAAFP, the associate dean for recruitment and admissions at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) F. Edward Hébert School of Medicine -- “America’s Medical School” -- in Bethesda, Maryland, will give a special presentation focused on a holistic approach to medical school admission, USUHS, and the Army Health Professionals Scholarship Program.

Date: 23 October 2017Michael T. Laub, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator and Professor of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will present the 2017/2018 Robert W. Stone Memorial Lecture at 4:00 p.m. on Monday, October 23, in 108 Wartik Laboratory on the Penn State University Park campus. The public lecture, titled “Specificity and Evolution of Bacterial Signaling Proteins,” is sponsored by the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Date: 05 October 2017Jianqing Fan, Frederick L. Moore '18 Professor of Finance, Professor of Statistics, and Professor of Operations Research and Financial Engineering at Princeton University, will present a lecture intended for a general audience, titled "Challenges on Analysis of Big Data"

Date: 03 October 2017Sir Shankar Balasubramanian, Herchel Smith Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Cambridge and senior group leader at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, will present the 2017/2018 Joseph Priestley Lecture in the Chemical Sciences at 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, October 3, in 301A Chemistry Building. This more specialized lecture, titled “G-quadruplexes: The Structure and Function of the DNA Quadruple Helix,” is sponsored by the Department of Chemistry.

Date: 02 October 2017Sir Shankar Balasubramanian, Herchel Smith Professor of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Cambridge and senior group leader at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute, will present the 2017/2018 Robert T. Simpson Memorial Lecture in Molecular Medicine at 4:00 p.m. on Monday, October 2, 2017, in 108 Wartik Laboratory on the Penn State University Park campus. The public lecture, titled “Decoding Human Genomes on a Population Scale,” is sponsored by the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Date: 28 September 2017Richard Henderson, a group leader and emeritus scientist in the Division of Structural Studies at the U.K. Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology (MRC LMB), will present the 2017/2018 Ernest C. Pollard Lecture. The lecture is titled “The cryoEM Revolution in Structural Biology.”

Date: 05 September 2017The Central PA Section of the American Chemical Society (ACS) will be hosting its 7th Annual Fall Undergraduate Research Poster Symposium at University Park on September 5, 2017. If you are involved in research or participated in research over the summer, this poster session is a great way to practice your presentation skills and share your accomplishments.

Date: 21 August 2017Volunteers at three locations around State College will hand out safe “eclipse glasses” for students and community members who want to see the partial solar eclipse that will be visible in central Pennsylvania on Monday, August 21, 2017.

Date: 25 May 2017Richard A. Young (MIT/Whitehead Institute) presents: “Development and Disease: The View from Chromosome Neighborhoods” -- at 4:00 p.m. on May 25 in 100 Huck Life Sciences Building on the Penn State University Park Campus. The Robert T. Simpson Lectureship is sponsored by the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

Date: 12 May 2017The Penn State Department of Statistics will host the 2017 Rao Prize Conference on Friday, May 12, 2017 in 102 Thomas Building on the Penn State University Park campus. This one-day conference, which is free and open to the public, begins with registration at 8:00 a.m. followed by the award ceremony and lectures continuing throughout the day until 5:20 p.m.